Bring Conmen to justice

What we are petitioning for is for a law to be passed making it a criminal offence when you are conned / cheated out of your money (In all manner of ways).

For example when buying goods or paying for a service that you do not receive or an investment opportunity or even romance scams where you realise you have been conned. When confronting these individuals/companies they refuse to return your money or claim they are unable to. The main point is that they deliberately and knowlingly conned you out of your money and have no intention to pay you back.

The law in the UK does NOT protect the public from conmen / scam artists who know the weakness in the law at present and exploit it as there are no legal ramifications for their actions.

The police do not currently have the resources, policies or the backing of the law to pursue such individuals. According to the law at present, if you “Willingly” handed over the money to the said individual / company which turned out to be a scam then no crime has been committed and it is a civil matter.

The intention of this petition is to open the eyes of the law to new types of criminals who target anyone they can cheat knowing full well as the law stands they cannot be prosecuted and so have nothing to fear.

As a member of the public, we do not have these legal rights against individuals who perpetrate their scams upon us. They know full well the law will not take action against them and know the loopholes to avoid punishment. Fifty percent of people will fall victim to a scam / conman at some point in their lives…. It is a major worldwide problem and something needs to be done. It is only going to get worse as internet scams are becoming more prevelant.

These conmen need to be dealt with by the legal system as criminals and brought to justice through the court system. This would serve as a deterrent to them and others knowing they will not get away with it.

A NEW LAW NEEDS TO BE INTRODUCED TO DEAL WITH CONMEN / SCAM ARTISTS AS CRIMINALS

If you pursue a conman through a small claims court, they will plead that they do not have the money and know that they will get away without having to pay you back. They are not afraid of the system as there is no potential prison sentence / criminal record to deter them because what they are doing is not classed as a criminal offence. At best they might be ordered to pay the money back at an affordable rate to them, eg £5 per month! Whereas they may have conned someone out of their life savings and in some cases people have taken their lives because of it.

Many people have lost tens of thousands of pounds and even taken out loans and even lost everything that they have owned. Paying the loan back or trying to claw your money back is heart breaking enough but it is the emotional pain inflicted upon you that is horrendous. We know that this affects so many people and it is time for the law to adapt to stop conmen / scam artists as soon as possible.

Currently if you go to the police to report a scam you are referred to Action Fraud, whereby you complete an online form with all the details and submit it to them. Unfortunately you receive a generic response and they are unable to deal with the matter due to the lack of laws in place.

Please help by signing this petition to bring this prevelant and growing issue to the forefront and for the law to be created to bring conmen to justice.